Abstract
Over the past decades, global (media) policy has gained a place high on the agendas of political, civil society, business, and academic forums. The resources invested within this field are considerable and diverse, and there are many ideological projects launched to deal with this once so poorly charted territory.
Without wanting to discredit the relevance of global policy development, and its intentions to "civilize" the many territories that are still open, this chapter aims to take a step back in order to deconstruct some of the basic assumptions that circulate within this field. This chapter will deploy post-structuralist theory (and, more specifically, a combination of the work of Foucault and Lacan) to theorize the existence of three basic fantasies that feed into the field of the political, politics, and policy.
In order to analyse the power dynamics (and hegemonies) that these fantasies trigger, this chapter will start with a discussion on power. More specifically, two approaches to power will be developed: The first is based on the distinction between causal and strategic power, while the second is based on the differences between discursive power, material body-related power, and material object-related power.
In the next part of the chapter, the focus is placed on specific components of discursive power within the field of policy which are termed fantasies (in alignment with Lacan's work). These fantasies play a crucial role: They drive policy interventions, and influence and legitimate how within a society, discursive and material power operate and are distributed.
In the last part of the chapter, this conceptual reflection will be applied within the context of the global media policy debate, showing how a number of hegemonies and fantasies circulate within the field of global media policy development, and how they exercise their discursive power.